Archive for maj, 2018

Working as an Artist with focus on building Artist’s Books I was invited to join the Barking about Bark Workshop series held at Sliperiet in 2017. Workshop had a focus on exploring limits and it aroused many questions such as:
If I order Birch bark from a craft supplier what can I as a newbie to the material make from it?
How can I work with bark – näver and modern machinery?

My personal questions were.
Can I kerf Bark and make it bend to my will?
How can I combine laser cutting and Birch Bark?
Is there an age limit to the material if yes will it be an issue when laser cut?

This last question is a bit like kicking in an open door. There are limits for all materials and bark is no exception. But is a crucial to understand if the heat exposure to the material when cut laser will affect the long term result. Kerfing bark proved to be difficult as this material has lentil cells and a natural bendiness. If the kerf is cut to narrow the heat from the laser will make the bark brittle and the object will fall apart over time. Same result when the kerf cuts across the lentil cells.

After some minor experimenting resulting in failures other question need to be asked. Why use a laser cutter at all and what is laser cutting good at, other than mass production?
Analyzing the Bark, the one bought from the craft supplier, I if find two difficulties that make working with bark extra frustrating, it is difficult to cut curved lines and make holes without the bark tearing by hand. This is exactly what the laser cutter is really good at cutting out fine details, cutting holes and curved lines. The heat seals of the cut edges and prevent ruptures.

Another big advantage when working with a laser cutter and vector based layouts are the easy scaling of objects. You can easily change size.

On display in the showcase at 3D-Lab, Sliperiet are some of my prototypes for an upcoming a limited edition of bark containers. Some kerf test results and an Artist’s Book.

This is the fragileBook of decaymy first go at the theme Memento Mori for Vilnius.

I wanted this wordless book to convey not only the thought of death and decay but also remembrance. Book of Decay has multiple hand sewn inlays. Two made with semi opaque wax-paper and one translucent with pages made from vinyl-pockets. Most of the pages features a hand embroidered silken fly, Cynomya mortuorum also known as the fly of the dead or Totenfliege. The flies are one aspect of death and decay as we all eventually will return to dust in the end.

Remember death, not just your own mortality but also the loved ones that has already died. How to make visible this feeling and thought? Sometimes an item, a smell, a song or a word can trigger memory’s good or bad. Perhaps you like me, have found a small envelope with a name scribbled across and black edging containing a lock of hair among old photographs and felt how something vaguely spring to life, this person actually lived. Hair tokens as a trigger for memory has a strong charge in life and after death. To say Remember me always I added curls of real human hair and a not yet finished locket to the book.

The making of the book
In 2017 I made a series of laser cutting experiments on birch bark. I wanted to build a book cut from bark that had been decomposing in nature for at least 5 years. To achieve the half circular bend spine shape I kerfed the rigid bark not calculating that the heat from laser cutting would affect the cut result. The kerf started to fall into pieces almost immediately when cut.

Put prevent the book cover from further deterioration I sew it with shape silk onto a copy of the bark cover laser cut from thin birch plywood.

It turned out that the bark cover would continue to break down over time and get ever more fragile. I decided that the book would be impossible to send by mail and it would be even more difficult to pack and unpack it multiple times without it deteriorating completely so I build a different book on the theme memento mori … ock döden …that got accepted by the jury to the 8 th Artist’s Book Triennial in Vilnius curated by prof. Kestutis Vasiliunas.

I am testing the outlines in Photoshop to see what the new pattern would look like with both sides completed. As you can see I have to construct some serious padding for my both my hips to obtain the soft bell like shape that I am after.